A guy emailed this morning offering me a M-F 8 with a hydrostat trans for $150....says it just needs a throttle cable fixed......No pictures, but he says its OK and cuts, which to me means it has a deck with it. Doing some research on MTF and some were saying that these are quite rare........Any comments on this, since there seems to be an abundance of us Massey guys here?....lol

Mower deck has 2 gear box's on it, 1 shaft with 1 pulley joins them, where the shaft connects to the gear box is the problem area. Pic is a MF7or8 mower deck.
I think MF7 Hydros are really rare and 8s more gear drive than Hydros made.

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Interesting setup........am debating whether to buy this or not.....would prefer one that is a little larger.....Have a line on a MF 12 with a blower, but still waiting for the guy to call me back.........

Doug...if you are interested in this one, I will give you the guys phone #...he is in Collingwood.

I emailed him for pics, but he hasnt sent any........I will have a look at that St Cath ad.....long ways from here though......and the old lady would want me to drop her off at the casino at the falls....lol
Will Pm the Collingwood phone #.....

Hello, I have an MF-8 Hydro, it's comparable to my 7 gear in terms of power, but it's easier for my sons to operate (I could get them mowing with the Hydro by age 9). The downside of the 8 is the engine vibration compared to the 7. The 7 has the Tecumseh H-70, the 8 the Tecumseh HM-80 which has a larger footprint. My 8 doesn't have the vibration damping option that Massey offered for them, I've been curious as to whether they really worked. The MF-710 mower does a nice job on either tractor, though leveling the deck always takes me a while. I use it for cutting between trees and shrubs. I think the 7 Hydro is less common than the 8 Hydro. I assume that the HP loss of using the hydrostatic on the 7 was the motivation for introducing the MF-8. I've always been under the impression that the MF-10 was discontinued and the MF-12G took its place once the MF-14 and MF-16 were introduced and replaced the MF-12 Hydro. The old-time owner of the Massey dealership near me always says that the Hydrostatic transmissions consume about 2 HP to operate. I'm not sure his theory was ever tested on a dyno. As for an MF-8 versus an MF-12, if you have a lot of mowing, go with the 12, but be aware that parts for the Solid-state ignition and the Walbro carburetors on the Tecumseh HH-120 as well as many other parts for the HH engines are tough to find, whereas Tecumseh's line of HM engines were manufactured nearly to their bankruptcy and can be found on lots of snowblowers, generators, and tillers. Good Luck.

A guy emailed this morning offering me a M-F 8 with a hydrostat trans for $150....says it just needs a throttle cable fixed......No pictures, but he says its OK and cuts, which to me means it has a deck with it. Doing some research on MTF and some were saying that these are quite rare........Any comments on this, since there seems to be an abundance of us Massey guys here?....lol

Yes they are. There were only 52 MF7Hydros made in 1968, one of those would be EXTREMELY rare, very hard to say how many were made over the 4 year production run. The factory knows there were 4170 built from 1968-1970, but they're not sure how many were made in 1971, the last year of the MF7. It could have been 1, or it could have been more than a thousand or 2 thousand, but realistically I'd say less than 5,000 total MF7Hydros were built. The rarest two models of the series are the MF16 and the MF8G recoil start, both with less than 2500 units built. I would LOVE to have a 1968 MF7Hydro. They actually Made over 60,000 MF7's all models, versus less than 23,000 MF8 all models. Funny thing, I hardly ever see MF7's. BTW, there were 8959 MF8Hydros made over the same 4 years

Years ago 20 or so I owned a MF7 Hydro and the 2 trouble spots for me were the mower gearbox splined couplers and the engine. The engine was a H70 aluminum block no cast iron liner, they where out fast. I put a brand new shortblock in that thing and with a fresh engine it's good. MF8's have HM80 aluminum block with cast iron liner, much better you have a larger displacement engine with way more durability. Back then my MF7 Hydro compared to my friends MF8 gear drive, for grass cutting power in light or heavy grass, MF8 faster better. Mind you Hydros are more maneuverable, forward-backward as fast as you can move the lever. IMO MF8 Hydros are good grass cutter and the more obstacles the more they shine.

Doug/Blair....I saved you some gas money and time.....It wasn't an MF8 after all, it was a later model MF85.....Don't know the year, I can't find anything on these....I got it anyways, not sure if I did good or not, but I traded hi an old chipper I had given to me. I have no use for it and he really wanted it.....The tractor isn't a real hydto either, its one of those multigear boxes like on some of the rear engine mowers, 8 hp vert shaft B&S.....I guess I will clean it up and stick by the road, see what I can get for it.....Pics of the tractor